Full speed into the past: Elizabeth May boldly enters the 19th century

Elizabeth May is calling for a return to door-to-door mail delivery by Canada Post, saying the agency can pay for the service by diversifying into services such as banking in rural areas.

The Green leader spoke to reporters Tuesday in front of a recently installed community mailbox in Halifax which she says should be removed.

"Picture this location in the winter Halifax just went through with ice everywhere. Picture people trying to get from their homes to this postal box on foot. This is an idiocy," said May, as cars and trucks sped by on the busy St. Margaret's Bay Road artery.

"We need door-to-door mail delivery."

Having to walk through snow and ice in the middle of winter. You'd almost think you were living in Canada or something. Don't worry too much Lizzy. If global warming is real then people won't have to worry about "ice everywhere" for much longer. They'll just stroll through the balmy February mornings to pick up their junk mail.

What Ms May is missing is that in much of the country community mail boxes have been common place for more than twenty years. More than two-thirds of Canadians don't get home delivery. I guess there isn't "ice everywhere" in two-thirds of the country. Since this is Lizzy May the silliness doesn't come in dribs and drabs but all at once.

In order to subsidize the increasingly uneconomical home delivery of mail, the Green Party leader is suggesting Canada Post get into the insurance and banking business. You read that right. She wants a Crown corporation to put money into the already oversaturated financial services sector. Of course Ms May doesn't explain how Canada Post will make money selling GICs and variable annuities, products it's executives know nothing about. Will the Posties be able to sell these products cheaper and more efficiently than the private sector? Does anyone still believe that?

Having failed at developing a coherent marketing plan for Canada Post Bank, Lizzy then skips over common sense and calls for home delivery as a make work scheme. Apparently the more letter carriers we hire the better the economy will do. Alright. Let's follow Lizzynomics to its logical conclusion.

Delivering physical pieces of paper across Canada is nearly obsolete. There is very little today that cannot be done online. As a nation we're in a period of transition. The idea of a traditional post office is going to look incredibly quaint in about ten years. But let's say that you don't care about. To hell with progress we want jobs! Three cheers for Elizabeth Maynard May!

Fine. The fastest way to create jobs is to destroy technology. Imagine how well Canada Post would be doing if the government ordered the internet to shut down. No more e-mails! No more Facebook! Our political masters would force all of us to go back to writing out letters, putting them in envelopes, sticking on a stamp and then walking over to a mail box. For nostalgia purposes we could even replace all those bland Canada Post boxes and bring back those nifty pre-Trudeau Royal Mail boxes!

This would certainly create thousands of jobs for letter carriers, mail sorters and the necessary back office work force this would entail. Thing is that at the same time it would destroy many thousands of more jobs in the rest of the economy. We adopt more advanced technology because it makes things faster and more convenient. This is another way of saying it makes us more productive.

The Canadian worker is among the most productive in the world. This isn't because we work harder than other nations, it's because of the technology we use. Being more productive is what allowed us to become one of the richest nations on earth. The short-term downside of adopting the latest and greatest is that thousands of jobs are destroyed. In time, of course, thousands of more job are created in their stead. That period of transition can be brutally harsh, yet without this kind of change we'd still be using actual buggy whips.

If Lizzy May really wants to keep Canada out of recession, she needs to learn how economies actually work. She needs to understand that make work isn't real work.

Comments

Wow, Jimmy with the almighty knowledge of childbirth. Thanks for enlightening me. Your 100% facts comes from a guy who has been stoned and drunk all his life. Now I understand your intellect on the postal service.

Erin Berney commented
2015-09-04 00:02:03 -0400

Hahaha! George Carlin is definitely hilarious, but like most comedians, he exaggerates for effect. Just like some pro-choicers are what I would call “anti-human”, there are certainly some pro-lifers who may be “anti-woman”, but painting them all with the same brush is just stereotyping.
But this is so off-topic. The best thing I can say about Elizabeth May is that she’s an idealist, which in itself is not a bad thing. The problem is she clearly lacks the necessary pragmatism to understand that door-to-door mail delivery hasn’t been economically feasible for decades, which is why it’s being phased out. If she’s so concerned with protecting Canadian institutions like Canada Post, she’d embrace reality and look for viable ways to keep it going, such as competing with UPS, Purolator and FedEx in parcel delivery services, or partnering with utilities and telecommunications companies in delivering email billing. Look to the future, not the past.

Travis Burgess commented
2015-09-03 15:29:12 -0400

I remember my family moved to Brooks in 1978 we picked up mail at the post office community boxes till 1980 then they put in green mail boxes at strategic spots in every neighborhood then in the late 1980’s they installed super boxes in more places. In Small town they have not had home delivery in 50 to 60 years (if ever). There is still plenty of workers why do we need to pay a bunch of people who whine about making 40 to 60 dollars an hour get paid overtime, get better benefits than anybody else in the country get paid for everything else.

Dale Warren commented
2015-09-03 14:37:37 -0400

Jimmy da Clueless . . . you are F’ed in the Head Jimmy . . . .
As Dr. Mengele at Planned Parenthood trades in Body Parts . . . .
Obama and Hillary are watching the 10s of thousands fleeing the pathetic mess they created in the Middle East . . .
Nutty Tommy wants to bring them to Canada . . .
Poor ole Liz is just another far-left loon . . . Canada’s Al Bore !

Vlad Johnson commented
2015-09-03 13:54:57 -0400

Bernie Sanders – the Dems competitor to Billary. He looks like he should carry around a defibrillator.

What a fkg disgrace this communist fossil is.

Slap on a goofy beard, mustache and white suit and the Colonel is back!!!

mark macfadzen commented
2015-09-03 13:02:24 -0400

Lizzie, why not just have everyone given (sold monthly fee) a black berry passport (keep it in canada), than force all flyers (about the only thing i get in the mail), bills, invoice, notifications, and even personal letters, be sent via, the Cda Post direct mail service (federally protected). No more risk for the carriers, especially in the winter, no more hated boxes, no more sick leave, extended holidays, injury compensation, etc

Hey may, when you pitch, are you hammered like before?? GLUGGLUGGLUGYOUFATCOW!!!!

Craig Carmichael commented
2015-09-03 06:20:35 -0400

Bless her heart, she is Canada’s “special” candidate. I have seen her riding her adult tricycle around Sydney, she looks so happy. Everyone should have a “special” friend, but don’t tease them into running for P.M., I am looking at you “Justin’s Friend”.

Jimmy Da Silva commented
2015-09-03 04:06:18 -0400

Gods miracle. LOL.

From the absolute brilliance of George Carlin and 100% fact.

Conservatives are really something, aren’t they? They’re all in favor of the unborn. They will do anything for the unborn. But once you’re born, you’re on your own. Pro-life conservatives are obsessed with the fetus from conception to nine months. After that, they don’t want to know about you. They don’t want to hear from you. No nothing. No neonatal care, no day care, no head start, no school lunch, no food stamps, no welfare, no nothing. If you’re pre-born, you’re fine; if you’re preschool, you’re fucked.

Conservatives don’t give a shit about you until you reach “military age”. Then they think you are just fine. Just what they’ve been looking for. Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. Pro-life… pro-life… These people aren’t pro-life, they’re killing doctors! What kind of pro-life is that? What, they’ll do anything they can to save a fetus but if it grows up to be a doctor they just might have to kill it? They’re not pro-life. You know what they are? They’re anti-woman. Simple as it gets, anti-woman. They don’t like them. They don’t like women. They believe a woman’s primary role is to function as a brood mare for the state.

Pro-life… You don’t see many of these white anti-abortion women volunteering to have any black fetuses transplanted into their uterus’s, do you? No, you don’t see them adopting a whole lot of crack babies, do you? No, that might be something Christ would do. And, you won’t see a lot of these pro-life people dousing themselves in kerosene and lighting themselves on fire. You know, morally committed religious people in South Vietnam knew how to stage a goddamn demonstration, didn’t they?! They knew how to put on a fucking protest. Light yourself on FIRE!! C’mon, you moral crusaders, let’s see a little smoke. To match that fire in your belly.

Nevermind 8-track and beta Erin. 2000 years ago postal workers ran marathons to get their messages sent in Greece. If the idiot left wingers had it their way, we would still have marathon runners. Why continue to throw money at something that is becoming obsolete. Only the Conservative Party and Prime Minister Harper points out these truths to Canadians. The volumes are just not there anymore. And obviously Jimmy has no problems with a tug that aborts a pregnancy, murdering Gods miracle before he or she even enters the world.

Also as Mark Goddard pointed out and these idiot left wingers can’t see it. Eliminating paper mail is a step in the Green direction. Oh the hypocrisy of the ever so lush Elizabeth May and the Green Party

Erin Berney commented
2015-09-02 23:07:42 -0400

Funny. Maybe she can bring back 8-tracks and Beta while she’s at it.

Jimmy Da Silva commented
2015-09-02 22:09:41 -0400

But if there is no mail delivered to people’s houses – how will those against abortion send flyers with pictures of a fetus to hopefully tug at the heartstrings of those that think it’s a women’s right to choose?

Yvette Mozol commented
2015-09-02 21:55:24 -0400

I live in a rural setting & we have to drive 3 miles to the community mailbox. We have been doing this for years now. We don’t go every day to pick up mostly junk mail but only when we go to the city. Maybe she might try attaching the mail to the blades of the wind turbines & have them whirled into people’s yards & since she’s so gong ho on being green, she can mount the monstrosities herself to do the attaching & while she’s at it, attach herself to it too.

Glenn Radford commented
2015-09-02 18:15:22 -0400

It helps to understand May’s strategy; I’ve live in her riding and see it frequently; she has no intention of actually implementing any of her stupid solutions; it is just a feel-good promise to a potential voter, never having to be kept. It’s May’s job to lie; if she told the truth she could not be elected…too bad poorly informed people take her lies to the ballot box.

Steven Ambler commented
2015-09-02 16:59:18 -0400

Reminds me of the Milton Friedman story about his visit to a dam construction site in China. The workers were using shovels. When he asked why not tractors, they explained that they wanted to create more jobs. He replied that, if that was the case, they should replace the shovels with spoons. Someone should suggest to Ms May that Canada Post go back to sorting all mail by hand and to transporting it across the country on horseback. She might go for it.

Thinas Green commented
2015-09-02 15:44:22 -0400

Star by making postal deliverers work a full day

Fern Shuttleworth commented
2015-09-02 15:09:03 -0400

I am thankful I still have mail delivered to my apartment block. But something had to be done to cut Canada Postal costs. Of course, it had to be the Conservative party that does it!!!. The Liberals and NDP are to chicken to tackle the costs of Canada Post. The lefties Liberal and NDP don’t want to offend anyone. The Mail carriers get a very good salary just to deliver mail. I’m not saying the winters aren’t hard to deliver mail, but then change your profession by going back to school. An average person can then change your career if you are a postal worker and complaining about your $20.00 – $22.00 per hour to start. Also the postal workers have a very good retirement package. If I am quoting this right, they can retire at age 55 years old. That weird bird, E. May is disagreeing about this situation with Canada Post because it involves the Conservative Party. Otherwise, E. May might be drunk somewhere.

Mark Goddard commented
2015-09-02 13:57:00 -0400

Why is the green party promoting more paper products, paper made from the trees of our forests? I hardly get any mail anymore and I love the fact that there is less paper being used because now my bills are delivered by email. The next thing that should go are newspapers, that are also made from trees. The pulp mills have been raping the forests for decades to supply paper products that get thrown into the landfill. What a strange woman she is.

Richard Brinkman commented
2015-09-02 13:17:49 -0400

VERYMUCHAPPRECIATED!!! – The Leader of the Green Party Elizabeth May for reading our petition in Parliament December 2014. A Petition where 900 from the 1500 Signatures came directly from Albertans in the NDP Linda Duncan’s Edmonton/ Strathcona riding – Thank You Elizabeth for giving voice to the people when our local voice in Ottawa NDP MP refused – YouTube: https://youtu.be/h6Uttp2zt40

C. White commented
2015-09-02 13:13:13 -0400

Actually, in her socialist sense, Ms Dizzy Green only wants jobs for union postal workers. It is not that she wants them to be suddenly having to work in those jobs. After all a working public service union is an complete oxymoron.

John Vossos commented
2015-09-02 13:12:04 -0400

If anyone was mailing anything, she may have a case, but we can all do nicely without the Boston Pizza and Home Depot flyers. Lizzy … word of the day …. E-Mail ….

Eileen McRae commented
2015-09-02 12:32:49 -0400

“Dizzy Lizzy” does NOT know her FACTS. As a youngster, I remember trudging through 6 ft. high snow drifts (our roads in the country were not always plowed) to walk a mile to our mailbox! Now I walk on plowed sidewalks to the end of our block and get it at a community mailbox. Contrary to photos shown by the activists protesting against these, our community mailbox area has NO garbage!
And, by the way I am a senior with arthritic knees, and my husband had knee replacement surgery. If there is a WILL, there is a WAY!

Atif Zia commented
2015-09-02 11:48:12 -0400

Maybe, while she’s at it, Ms. May can look into bringing back telephone switchboard operators, door-to-door milk bottle delivery, Blockbuster Video, taping songs off the radio, and Blue Light Specials at Woolco.